Did you know that Conor has stuffed
70% of takedowns?
Did you know that RDA has only stuffed
66% of takedowns?
Did you know that Frankie Edgar has only stuffed
65% of takedowns?
Did you know that Benson Henderson has only stuffed
63% of takedowns?
Other notables include: Cerrone
70%, Pettis
61%, Faber
60%, Lamas
48%, Sanchez
49%, Fitch
56%, Big Rigg
62%, Lawler
67%, Condit
39%, Anderson Silva
68%
Conor vs Nate 2 - 1 takedown 6 defences
Conor vs Nate 1 - 1 takedown 0 defences
Conor vs Aldo – 0 takedowns 0 defences
Conor vs Mendes – 4 takedowns 3 defences
Conor vs Siver – 0 takedown 3 defences
Conor vs Poirier – 0 takedowns 0 defences
Conor vs Brandao – 0 takedowns 2 defences (Scored 1/1 takedown)
Conor vs Holloway – 0 takedowns 0 defences (Scored 4/5 takedowns) - Holloway has a TDD of 81% and Conor took him down 80% of the time...with one leg.
Conor vs Brimage – 0 takedowns 0 defences
Conor has ONLY been taken down 4 times total by Mendes (no other UFC fighter), a fighter well known for his wrestling abilities and he defended 3 other takedowns. The other 2 were against an opponent that had 30 pounds on him and 1 was immediately swept, and the other was with a few seconds left in round 5.
Conor has defended 6 takedowns from Nate, 3 from Mendes, 3 from Siver and 2 from Brandao.
Conor has taken down Brandao 1 time and Holloway 4 out of 5 times.
First vs Holloway
Conor injured his knee restricting his movement and putting an end to his normal striking game. Even still Conor managed to score 4 out of 5 takedowns and win by decision without being taken down himself. So a few takeaways from that fight. Conor can take fighters down, though he rarely uses it as part of his normal gameplan. His ground control was good enough to gain the win vs Holloway.
Second vs Mendes
Conor tore his MCL in his knee in the lead up to the fight against Aldo so he did not train TDD. A late of opponent brought in the dangerous wrestler Mendes.
Round 1
Takedown 1 – Conor attacks forward tries a flying knee and Chad grabs leg and takes Conor down, momentarily has control before Conor pops back up.
Takedown 2 – Stuffed...Mendes goes for a double leg against the cage, Conor pushes down and breaks the double leg.
Takedown 3 – Caught Conor flat footed talking to him and did a nice power double sham in the open. One elbow (cut above eye) before Conor slipped out and got up eating one shot as he stands.
Takedown 4 – Conor attacking forward Mendes drops down and double leg takedown. No striking Chad warned 3 times for fingers in the cut.
Round 2
Takedown 5 – Stuffed...Mendes goes for a diving double leg and Conor does big sprawl backwards, Mendes misses.
Takedown 6 – Stuffed
Takedown 7 – Conor attacking forward, missed straight left Mendes ducks and gets double leg. Long sequence of elbows by both. Mendes goes for guillotine and Conor escapes.
All Conor's takedowns were from Conor pressuring forward and inflicting damage leaving himself open to the takedown. Mainly by double leg which Mendes is known to favour.
So what happens if you take Conor down?
What we saw from the Mendes fight:
- Conor remained very calm and generally did not seem stressed or worried about being on his back. He seemed very patient and expended very little energy.
- Conor attempted to limit Mendes movement to the point that he could not be active and a standup would have to be called by the ref.
- Conor used vicious elbows repeatedly to crown of Mendes head causing Mendes to sook to Herb and to call the blows illegal (He did not, blows were legal).
Conor waited until Mendes transitioned for a guillotine then exploded out at the correct time to break the attempted submission. (We all know what happened next)...
Third vs Nate 1
Takedown 1 - Nate catches Conor's leg and takes Conor to the ground. Conor immediately sweeps using the expert level X-sweep and finishes the round on top.
Fourth vs Nate 2
Takedown 1 - stuffed
Takedown 2 - stuffed
Takedown 3 - stuffed
Takedown 4 - stuffed
Takedown 5 - stuffed
Takedown 6 - stuffed
Takedown 7 - Nate scores a takedown with a few seconds left on the clock using an excellent trip. Conor clearly gave up the takedown knowing full well he had the fight wrapped up.
An awful lot of takedown attempts by Nate. Did he wrestle at high school? An amazing feat by Conor given the 30-pound weight differential.
The troubling thing is Conor now trains with BJJ world champion and 185 pounder Dillon Danis so he will only improve his TDD. It would have been interesting to see how many takedowns Conor would have blocked with a full camp training for Mendes and all of his cruciate ligaments in full operation.
